35 Reasons Why Sisters Are the Best Friends

A best friend is a gift in life, but sisters share an unmatched bond. Even when the world seems like it’s working against you, your sister is always there for you to fall back on. She’s watched you grow up, been the primary witness to your awkward stage, and been there for all your triumphs.

Here are the top 35 reasons your sister hits the top of your best friends list:

She’s someone you can confide in about family matters. She already understands and knows the pain.

She’ll be there no matter what—even if the two of you were just in a fight yesterday.

She’s known you longer than anyone else.

She doesn’t judge you because she knows what you’ve been through.

You don’t have to try to make her understand where you’re coming from, she just knows.

If she’s older, she can walk you through her mistakes so you don’t have to make them as well.

If she’s younger, she’ll most likely look up to you, so you’ll have a cheerleader in all your endeavors.

She’s there when you need support.

She’s there when you think you don’t need support (but she knows that you do).

She’ll tell you the truth when you are about to commit a fashion sin.

She knows when you need advice and when you just need someone to listen.

You don’t have to brief her on your family’s strange idiosyncrasies.

The inside jokes with your sister are always the best.

You probably won’t have to worry about her going after your boyfriend (and she’ll probably tell off any other supposed “friend” of yours who does).

She knows all of the songs you secretly like but don’t tell anyone about, so it’s completely acceptable to turn it up and belt it out in the car with her.

She can instantly tell when something is wrong, even if you’ve only communicated by text.

You don’t mind if she borrows your clothes. You know where to go to get them back.

She’s the one you go to when you are having trouble with your other friends.

She doesn’t care how many times you’ve both seen The Notebook. She’ll watch it again with you.

She’s been there through every breakup.

She can say just one word to make you laugh uncontrollably, and it’s the Wait-Stop-I-Can’t-Breathe-And-My-Abs-Are-On-Fire kind of laugh.

Your “crazies” match up, which makes life just a little bit easier.

She’ll immediately notice when you’ve done something different with your hair or lost a pound.

She’ll push you out of your comfort zone, and even though you’ll kick and scream the entire time, you are secretly grateful for it.

She’s your partner in crime, even when she knows better.

She’s not afraid to tell you why the decision you are about to make is horrible.

She’s the first to give you a dose of tough love.

She’s seen you at your worst and at your best, and she loves you anyway.

She’s you go-to babysitter for your kids (or she will be when you have kids).

It doesn’t matter how far apart the two of you live, you know she’s always with you.

She’ll tell you not to buy another tank top, because she knows you already have 12 in the closet. And no, it doesn’t matter how cute you think this particular tank top is.

She’ll be the first to try something new with you.

You can always count on her to try and talk you out of a bad idea even though you’ve never listened in the past.

Her advice is always exactly what you need to hear.

She loves you for you, and she’ll never try to make you into something your not.

How to Communicate Effectively in Any Relationship

For all our social media bravado, we live in a society where communication is seen less as an art, and more as a perfunctory exercise. We spend so much time with people, yet we struggle with how to meaningfully communicate.

If you believe you have mastered effective communication, scan the list below and see whether you can see yourself in any of the examples:

Example 1

You are uncomfortable with a person’s actions or comments, and rather than telling the individual immediately, you sidestep the issue and attempt to move on as though the offending behavior or comment never happened.

You move on with the relationship and develop a pattern of not addressing challenging situations. Before long, the person with whom you are in relationship will say or do something that pushes you over the top and predictably, you explode or withdraw completely from the relationship.

In this example, hard-to-speak truths become never- expressed truths that turn into resentment and anger.

Example 2

You communicate from the head and without emotion. While what you communicate makes perfect sense to you, it comes across as cold because it lacks emotion.

People do not understand what motivates you to say what you say, and without sharing your feelings and emotions, others experience you as rude, cold or aggressive.

You will know this is a problem if people shy away from you, ignore your contributions in meetings or tell you your words hurt. You can also know you struggle in this area if you find yourself constantly apologizing for things you have said.

Example 3

You have an issue with one person, but you communicate your problem to an entirely different person.

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The person in whom you confide lacks the authority to resolve the matter troubling you, and while you have vented and expressed frustration, the underlying challenge is unresolved.

Example 4

You grew up in a family with destructive communication habits and those habits play out in your current relationships.

Because you have never stopped to ask why you communicate the way you do and whether your communication style still works, you may lack understanding of how your words impact others and how to implement positive change.

If you find yourself in any of the situations described above, this article is for you.

Communication can build or decimate worlds and it is important we get it right. Regardless of your professional aspirations or personal goals, you can improve your communication skills if you:

Understand your own communication style

Tailor your style depending on the needs of the audience

Communicate with precision and care

Be mindful of your delivery, timing and messenger

1. Understand Your Communication Style

To communicate effectively, you must understand the communication legacy passed down from our parents, grandparents or caregivers. Each of us grew up with spoken and unspoken rules about communication.

In some families, direct communication is practiced and honored. In other families, family members are encouraged to shy away from difficult conversations. Some families appreciate open and frank dialogue and others do not. Other families practice silence about substantive matters, that is, they seldom or rarely broach difficult conversations at all.

Before you can appreciate the nuance required in communication, it helps to know the familial patterns you grew up with.

2. Learn Others Communication Styles

Communicating effectively requires you to take a step back, assess the intended recipient of your communication and think through how the individual prefers to be communicated with. Once you know this, you can tailor your message in a way that increases the likelihood of being heard. This also prevents you from assuming the way you communicate with one group is appropriate or right for all groups or people.

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If you are unsure how to determine the styles of the groups or persons with whom you are interacting, you can always ask them:

“How do you prefer to receive information?”

This approach requires listening, both to what the individuals say as well as what is unspoken. Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson noted that the best communicators are also great listeners.

To communicate effectively from relationship to relationship and situation to situation, you must understand the communication needs of others.

3. Exercise Precision and Care

A recent engagement underscored for me the importance of exercising care when communicating.

On a recent trip to Ohio, I decided to meet up with an old friend to go for a walk. As we strolled through the soccer park, my friend gently announced that he had something to talk about, he was upset with me. His introduction to the problem allowed me to mentally shift gears and prepare for the conversation.

Shortly after introducing the shift in conversation, my friend asked me why I didn’t invite him to the launch party for my business. He lives in Ohio and I live in the D.C. area.

I explained that the event snuck up on me, and I only started planning the invite list three weeks before the event. Due to the last-minute nature of the gathering, I opted to invite people in the DMV area versus my friends from outside the area – I didn’t want to be disrespectful by asking them to travel on such short notice.

I also noted that I didn’t want to be disappointed if he and others declined to come to the event. So I played it safe in terms of inviting people who were local.

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In the moment, I felt the conversation went very well. I also checked in with my friend a few days after our walk, affirmed my appreciation for his willingness to communicate his upset and our ability to work through it.

The way this conversation unfolded exemplified effective communication. My friend approached me with grace and vulnerability. He approached me with a level of curiosity that didn’t put me on my heels — I was able to really listen to what he was saying, apologize for how my decision impacted him and vow that going forward, I would always ask rather than making decisions for him and others.

Our relationship is intact, and I now have information that will help me become a better friend to him and others.

4. Be Mindful of Delivery, Timing and Messenger

Communicating effectively also requires thinking through the delivery of the message one intends to communicate as well as the appropriate time for the discussion.

In an Entrepreneur.com column, VIP Contributor Deep Patel, noted that persons interested in communicating well need to master the art of timing. Patel noted,[1]

“Great comedians, like all great communicators, are able to feel out their audience to determine when to move on to a new topic or when to reiterate an idea.”

Communicating effectively also requires thoughtfulness about the messenger. A person prone to dramatic, angry outbursts should never be called upon to deliver constructive feedback, especially to people whom they do not know. The immediate aftermath of a mass shooting is not the ideal time to talk about the importance of the Second Amendment rights.

Like everyone else, I must work to ensure my communication is layered with precision and care.

It requires precision because words must be carefully tailored to the person with whom you are speaking.

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It requires intentionality because before one communicates, one should think about the audience and what the audience needs in order to hear your message the way you intended it to be communicated.

It requires active listening which is about hearing verbal and nonverbal messages.

Even though we may be right in what we say, how we say it could derail the impact of the message and the other parties’ ability to hear the message.

Communicating with care is also about saying things that the people in our life need to hear and doing so with love.

The Bottom Line

When I left the meeting with my dear friend, I wondered if I was replicating or modeling this level of openness and transparency in the rest of my relationships.

I was intrigued and appreciative. He’d clearly thought about what he wanted to say to me, picked the appropriate time to share his feedback and then delivered it with care. He hit the ball out of the park and I’m hopeful we all do the same.